


Sapphire and Tanzanite

by ultraviolethaz



Series: Flufftober 2019 [16]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Flufftober, M/M, Promises, Sad with a Happy Ending, Strangers to Lovers, Sunsets, journalist!magnus, singer!alec
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 08:07:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21071648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultraviolethaz/pseuds/ultraviolethaz
Summary: Fives times Alec and Magnus watch the sunset, while thinking about the other and the one time they watch it together





	Sapphire and Tanzanite

**Author's Note:**

> Heyy
> 
> This is a day late, but at least I posted it right? I had unexpected circumstances last night so I couldn't finish or post this, but it's here and so is the actual day 17 prompt! Let me know what you think, sorry it's a bit sad for flufftober :(
> 
> Enjoy!

**London, England**

It had been a long fucking day, Magnus was just on his way back to the hotel he had been staying out for the whole conference. The only reason he was even London, was to sit through that conference and Magnus wouldn’t wish it on his worst enemy. The first thing that had gone wrong was that there was a power cut and all the mics stopped working, forcing everyone to sit there while they sorted the issue. Then someone had spilled coffee on Magnus’ new shoes, suede shoes he might add, and he couldn’t even shout at the asshole who had done it, because it was his boss’ son. Cue a very shouty text to Catarina about his issues. He was now slumping onto the bed, the budget mattress doing nothing for his back, propped up by the pillows, Magnus got a full view out of the floor to ceiling windows. Sunset, Magnus’ favourite time of the day but also he hated it. The oranges and purples projected onto the clouds, reminding him of a time when he was happier. 

All those years ago, back in New York, one summer changed everything for Magnus, he had met a boy. The most beautiful boy he’s ever seen in his life, black hair- slightly too long and falling over his eyes- piercing green eyes and those black rimmed glasses, that didn’t belong on his face. When Magnus had seen him, drawing by the massive oak tree on college campus he was mesmerised. It had taken half of the summer break for Magnus to talk to the boy, and only half that to realise it was never going to last. Alexander had been his name, he didn’t live near New York, only visiting with his mother. Those few months they had together were perfect. Magnus couldn’t have asked for a better summer. He had wanted to stay, go back home to Italy with him but that was never going to happen. They promised each other that they would find one another again, maybe not in this lifetime or the one after that, but it was all Magnus had. A ring in a box, with a sapphire gem, in the middle. All he had left of Alec now is that ring and a thousand memories. 

**Rome, Italy**

Traffic, ridiculous amounts of fucking traffic, and Alec is as late as late can be. In twenty minutes he has to be at the church to give his sister away. Isabelle had been on the phone to him all night about how nervous she was, marrying someone who she’d known for seven years, suddenly feeling really weird. Waking up this morning, Alec had overslept and now thirty minutes away from the church he was stuck in traffic. He’d phoned everyone and not a single person had picked up their phone, he only hoped that someone would notice he wasn’t there and try and ring him back. Sure enough his phone started playing a horrible remix of Mr Saxobeat, that Jace had set and he had no idea how to change it back. 

“Hey Alec, where are you?” His mother’s voice sounded through the car speakers

“In traffic on the freeway”

“You’re not going to be here in time”   
“I know”

“You’re going to miss it”   
“I know” Then it seemed like his mother left, he heard voices in the background, Isabelle’s and then Jace’s. 

“Hey brother, how late are you going to be?”

“I don’t know, it's gridlocked”

“We’ll wait”

“Iz”

“No you’re walking me down the aisle, we’re going to wait” The phone hung up and Alec was alone again. If he had just woken up that little bit earlier maybe, just maybe, he would have gotten there on time and everyone else wouldn’t be waiting for his sorry ass to get to the church.

In the car on his own like this, he thought of Magnus, and how if that summer was different, if they met at any other time in their lives. Magnus would be here right now next to him in the passenger seat. Alec pictured him hanging out of the window, with the extreme road rage that Magnus always seemed to have when they were in the car, shouting at people to move. Alec thinks about Magnus more than he is willing to admit that summer back when they had met on the college green, engraved in his mind for the rest of time. 

Even after the wedding, after walking Isabelle down the aisle to meet Simon at the end, after a few too many cheesy speeches and definitely too much alcohol. Slumped up against one of the pillars in the gardens, watching as the sun settle beyond the horizon, Alec thought about Magnus and what could’ve been. What life would’ve been like if he hadn’t left. The tanzanite ring dangling from a chain around his neck. Alec so wished he could go back.

**Tokyo, Japan**

Magnus has no idea how he got here, two years ago he would never have dreamed of being in Japan. He had goals, clear set ones, that resigned to getting that promotion at the newspaper company, moving up in the ranks slowly but surely. The world had other plans, he had been offered a job, a much better job to what he had previously. He would get to travel the world without so much as a thought, report on what he wanted- fashion. A magazine had wanted him and he just took the job without thinking. Now he was in Japan, listening in on a fashion show. This was like a dream. In fact maybe it was. He was flying out of Japan and into Italy on the weekend, but all he could think about was Alec. That son of a bitch always found a way into his mind and the worst moments. With his perfect hair and his perfect eyes and that goddamn smile, that seemed to annoy Magnus now more than give him happiness. He knew really he was never going to see Alec again, he had no way of contacting the man. They had gone their separate ways and that was that. It was for the best right?

The evening carried on, Magnus finding himself at the bar more times than not for the whole event, fiddling with his rings. Well not all of them, just the one, that one fucking ring that he was never going to take off, the ony piece he has left. A sliver of what was. Mad at himself for not trying to hold to the best thing that had ever happened in his life. The only person for him. There was no one like Alec. By god did Magnus know it, the multiple dates he had been on, nothing compared to what he had with Alec. It didn’t matter that it was only a summer, Alec was a light in the dark, Magnus had thought his love life was over after Camille. She broke him in ways he didn’t think he could be broken. Alec fixed all those broken parts, sewing them back into place. 

The fucking sapphire was a constant reminder of all of that time. 

**Havana, Cuba**

Speakers blasting his new song as he listened to the final product in the studio. Travelling to Havana hadn’t been an easy decision, writer’s block taking over while he sat at home, Italy not giving him the same inspiration it used to. What once was a comforting hug, was now a bittersweet taste. All since that night he had returned to Rome when he was 20, since that summer with Magnus. That was when it changed, everything changed after that. Havana was one of the places that they had daydreamed about visiting. Alec thinks back to the oak tree- where it all started and ended- his head pooled in Magnus’ lap, while they talked about what they would be doing after all of it, joking about meeting in the afterlife- whatever that was. In another life they might cross paths and find each other again, one of those life times had been in Havana. Alec as a bar owner, Magnus as a Cubian dancer, meeting at one of Magnus’ many shows at the bar. Alec hiring him based on his looks rather than his talents. 

The song over, Alec realised he hadn’t listened to a single cord, daydreaming about maybe running into Magnus again. The new song was about Magnus, Alec knew that, he wasn’t stupid. As soon as he had touched down and got to the hotel, words started flowing out of him and he couldn’t stop them. The beat was strummed along with it and he had it. Two days later he recorded it and there it was. Magnus in a song. Magnus on paper. It was like Magnus was there, when Alec knew he never would be. Starting the song up again, Alec listened- properly this time. 

_ ‘You say you've been through this before, you gave away all your secrets, to someone who up and left you in pieces, I know the feeling, believe me’  _ Playing out. Alec remembering that evening by the pool when Magnus had opened himself up, telling Alec all about Camille and what she did to him. Giving Alec the space to open up about Jessie. A connection Alec has never felt with anyone not even his own siblings.

The tanzanite still dangling from his neck, on that shitty chain. 

**New York, United States**

“Rain by Alexander Lightwood now playing” The car screen read back to him, Magnus had heard this song a hundred times and to hear Alec’s voice again was a blessing a curse. He knew the boy when he had just started his career, he knew Alec for who he really was. Over the years, Magnus had heard countless amounts of Alec’s music. A lot of them not even sounding like the man that Magnus knew as Alexander Lightwood. This one, different from all the others. Emotions poured out in front of everyone, Alec’s transparent self being pushed out to the world. After all that time, Magnus felt like he was seeing Alec naked again, in his most vulnerable form. Magnus would be lying if he said the song didn’t make him emotional, if he didn’t know any better he would go as far to say it was meant for him, for his ears only. 

The song didn’t leave him for the rest of the day, sure he had heard it before but for the first time it was like he actually  _ heard  _ it. Heard the lyrics. Heard the message embedded in there. Heard Alec for the first time in years. In meetings and even on the car ride home, all Magnus thought that day was Alec  _ Alec  _ ** _Alec. _ **

At home, Magnus decided to listen to Alec’s album. He had no fucking clue why he did, by 6pm he was wine drunk and ready for bed. He’d realised he’d been missing every word Alec had been trying to tell him. For all that time, there was a message just sat there waiting for Magnus to get his head out of his ass and listen to them. Magnus lead back on the grass of his lawn, greeted by the colours of the sky, Alec’s song playing softly in the background. Sunset, watching it alone again. Pain that’s all Magnus felt. As one song faded into the next  _ “You’re afraid to meet someone, ‘cause you've been burned”  _ Magnus watching the clouds moving across the purple sky. This was his life, love tethered to someone who he’d never see again. Holding his hand up at the sky, the sapphire gleaming back at him, tears were streaming down his face. This is it, isn’t it? A vicious cycle of hating Alec for making him fall in love and for loving him to pieces for sewing him back together again. The sunset becoming a dagger to the heart, with the memory of them watching it together every day, counting down the days until Alec left. That fucking sapphire still staring him in the face every day but he loved it with every fibre of his being. Alec. One day, it’ll be Alec forever. 

**New York, United States**

Tour night. Alec had spent the last month and a half travelling Europe, a new show every night and a new city every other day. Tonight was the first day of the USA tour, in New York City. He hadn’t been back here in a few years, his mother always travelling for her annual meetings with the faculty members of Yale. But with work and writing, Alec hadn’t been back. Walking passed the building, the one where he met Magnus, the oak tree still stood, fenced off now but still there. Alec can’t remember getting here, he’d been dipping in and out of shops all day avoiding the paparazzi. But now he was here. Everything had lead to him standing here 12 years later. 12 years after meeting the love of his life under a tree on a college green. Stopping at a bench opposite Alec just sat, rummaging for his notebook. He started writing.

Magnus has spent the last few weeks accepting that he had to move on, Alec was never coming back. There was no future for them- not now anyway. Catarina had tried to set him up on a few dates, to help with moving on to someone else, but he already knew they would never work. There was no harm in trying and never finding someone, right? Magnus had a day off today, he had spent most of the morning, proof reading an article. Nearing sunset, he took a walk, headphones in and pressing play on Alec’s album for the millionth time this week. He had been walking for hours, not taking any notice of where he had ended up, somehow he had gotten to his college campus, the college campus as it was now known in the back of his mind. The same spot, by the oak tree. The one where it was now going to end for good. Maybe somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he needed to come to this place again and close it all, so he could move on. Then he saw him. Alec. Sitting on a bench hunched over a notebook, scribbling something down. It was like the first time all over again.

_ Magnus had been walking all day, he had two classes and both of them we’re on either sides of the college building. If anything he just wanted to sit the fuck down. Halfway to his dorm room and his feet were in incredible pain, a bench would do for a minute while he regained any feeling he once had in his feet. All the benches were full though, it was early afternoon after all. His favourite drunk oak tree- he could sit under that for a while. Rounding the corner he saw a man- a fucking gorgeous man- black hair dropping over his face, covering it while he drew or wrote Magnus wasn’t sure. He approached, he needed to sit.  _

_ “Hey can i sit?” Magnus asked, as the man nodded and gestured for Magnus to join him on the grass “My name’s Magnus”  _

_ “Alec” That’s when he was met with those eyes, those green eyes that sucked him in just like that… _

Magnus realised that Alec had looked up and was looking at him, straight at him. Not behind him or at someone else. At him stood there like a fool. Just watching him. Magnus smiled and removed his headphones. 

“Hey” He didn’t really know what to say, how do you greet someone you haven’t seen for 12 years, but he didn’t need to worry because Alec had different plans. Pushing himself off the bench to stand as Magnus walked over. Then he was there. Being kissed. Weird that’s how Magnus felt right now. Weird, like it shouldn’t be happening, it was all a dream. He’d thought about seeing Alec again and this was not how he thought it would go. They wouldn’t just kiss like this, they would talk and try again- maybe- but this was really how Magnus wanted it to go. For Alec to be the one to kiss him senseless as they met eyes again, and that’s exactly what Alec had done. Pulling away, stupidly large grins plastered on their faces, foreheads touching, hands still on hips and backs. Magnus was speechless.

“We have some stuff to talk about” Alec finally said, breaking the silence from what it was. Yes they had a lot of things to talk about. They did. Watching the sunset, together. The oranges and purples fading into black and walking down the street and through a back alley and kissing before entering the backstage of the concert. They spoke after, all through the night. What they had done with their lives, where they were going, where they had been.

Alec’s tour ending only brought a new list of unspoken possibilities. Sapphire and Tanzanite reunited again.

**Author's Note:**

> My Twitter @cobaltbane
> 
> The songs I used as Alec's songs  
Rain and Temporary Love by Ben Platt


End file.
